


Your Tears Are Only Alibis

by ascoolsuchasi



Category: X Men: First Class - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Other, X-Men First Class Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:44:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ascoolsuchasi/pseuds/ascoolsuchasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Charles picks up on what people need him to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Tears Are Only Alibis

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/7761.html?thread=14525777#t14525777, in which a nonnie wanted Charles to be void of emotions and pick up on what others surrounding him need.
> 
> I've only seen the movie once, so if any of the movie bits are wrong, I'm sorry.

Charles really doesn’t know when it started. He just kind of hears everything and one day he took notice of it.

He’s eight and a half years old and his mother yell at him to leave, leave me be you bastard child, without every speaking a word to him. Charles never really makes any sense of this, but his mother is happier and maybe drinks less when he isn’t there.

Charles really doesn’t know how to feel. He just kind of picks up on what others do.

He’s twelve and a quarter years old. He’s bring his baseball bat down the stairs and to the kitchen. He thinks he heard someone down there. He sees his mother rooting through the kitchen. He tries to not make a sound. Just looks, but she notices him anyhow and jumps.

“Oh, hi sweetie. You scared me.”

He cocks his head and stares. She narrows her eyes and bites her lip, then smiles.

“How about mummy makes you a nice cup of coco and then we head up stairs sweetie?”

She doesn’t feel like his mother, but she looks like her.

“My mum...has never made me anything. Who are you?”

His mother winces and her skin flutters blue and she’s shorter; just a little girl. He feels a sad undercurrent and a longing for a place to call home. He sets down his bat.

“You’re not...afraid of me?”

Her voice is small and scared and twenty other things. He smiles.

 _No, you can stay here all you want. Here, let me get you something to eat. You’ll never go hungry again._

“I’m Raven.”

And she smiles and he laughs.

“I’m Charles, Charles Xavier.”

He makes her a toaster pastry. And she never feels like she doesn’t have a home again.

Charles really doesn’t know how to react. He just does what other want him to do.

He’s 30 and two months old and just finished his dissertation and added has three letters to his name. Everyone he knows and more are cheering him on. Someone just handed him a tall glass of some sort of alcohol. He smiles wide and takes a gulp. He wipes his mouth when he’s done. A young brunette walks towards him.

“Excuse me.”

He turns around and smiles wider. 

“You’re Charles Xavier, yes?”

He nods. 

“Congratulations.”

He smile lessens and he leans in close.

“You have,” His hand finds its way to her hair. “a wonderful mutation my dear.”

She almost grimaces.

“Professor, that’s what I need to talk to you abo-”

“A wonderful example of the MC1R gene.”

She scowls.

“I’m not...Professor, I need to know if what you wrote, your paper, if it’s possible if people with extraordinary gifts already exist.”

His smile drops. The bar’s environment caused him to miscalculate.

“Yes, let’s sit down.”

He points to an empty table. She sits down at it.

“So, is it true?”

He puts a hand to his head, fingers on his temples lazily. There’s a moment of silence. She grows uncomfortable. 

 _I think we need to talk outside about this Ms McTaggert._

He smiles. She gasps.

Charles doesn’t really know anyone that just exists. He knows others do more.

He’s thirty and two months old and he jumps into the freezing Atlantic ocean. He grabs on to a man he’s never met before because that’s what his mind is calling Charles, calling anyone to do. He holds on to this man like he’s never held onto anything in his life.

 _Calm your mind. You cannot win this. Let go or you will die._

He’s just telling this man what he already knows. The man let’s go and they float to the surface.

It’s later when the man asks what Charles did to him in the water.

“You have your tricks, and I have mine.” 

“I thought I was alone.”

 _You are not alone, Erik. You were never alone._

Erik stifles what Charles thinks is a cry.

Charles doesn’t really know how to be. He just functions.

  
He’s thirty and three quarters old and there’s a void in his mind’s space. He’s looking up to Erik, he’s being held, he can’t feel his legs. He registers that, but he doesn’t register what Erik’s saying. He can tell Erik’s eyes are brimming with tears, but he can’t tell...He just can’t tell.

“I’m sorry, my friend. We don’t want the same things.” He picks that up from Raven.

He feels Erik’s grip tighten then loosen all at once. He watches as Erik lays him out on the sand and stands. Sees him walk, his back turned, towards Azazel, Riptide, and Angel. He watches Raven follow suite. Then sees them disappear. He cries out only because others couldn't.


End file.
